NEW DELHI: In what could be seen as a Valentine's Day gift to All India Services officers, the Centre on Tuesday amended service rules to allow inter-cadre transfer for married couples to the home cadre of either of the spouse.
The amendment was cleared on Tuesday by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The revised rules will be applicable to officers of the three All India Services--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).
The decision to amend the rules comes after a slew of requests by married couples of the All India services seeking inter-cadre transfer. One such case relates to 2011-batch IAS officer P Parthiban who had married his batchmate and Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer Nisha, hailing from the national capital. Parthiban hails from Tamil Nadu but was allotted the Union Territories cadre which includes Delhi.
The couple had sought either the Tamil Nadu or the UT cadre, citing their marriage, as civil services rules allow the couple to shift to one cadre state.
“It has been observed that there is no provision in the exiting guidelines for the cases where either of the officers i.e. husband or wife can opt for the cadre of their spouse being their respective home cadre,” the office memorandum issued by the Ministry of Personnel said.
The matter was considered by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) and it approved that in cases where either of the officers cannot opt for the cadre of the spouse being their respective home cadre, the officers may choose the immediate next cadre, the memorandum further said.
In case of non receipt of preference within the stipulated time from the concerned officers, they can be assigned the most deficit cadre after receiving No Objection Certificate from the parent cadre as well as the recipient cadre, according to the revised guidelines.
The change in cadre will, however, be subject to concurrence from the concerned State Governments, the copy of the order added.